Day: August 4, 2004

So you’ve been living outta your suitcase for almost 3 weeks in hotel rooms. what do you do for food? Usually lunch at food courts around the office, but what about dinner?

One of the first things I do is to go to the supermarket or anywhere else I can get groceries, even if it’s only a 7-11. What I tend to get, drinks, snacks, fruit, sometimes yogurt. I empty the minibar fridge and fill it up with my stuff.

Back to dinner. I’ve bought whole roast chickens and bread and made sandwiches. I’ve bought take-out food boxes from food courts. Once in a while I’ll eat out, but hardly ever in proper restaurants.

Last night my colleagues took me out to dinner at Café Sydney, it was a rather upmarket place but the location was just strange. It’s at the perimeter of the top floor of a 5 storey building, and apart from the restaurant itself, the rest of the building has been stripped and is basically a construction site — concrete, wires, pipes are all in plain view. The open area around the balconey looked down to the site. Very interesting.

We shared starters — cooked bugs, mezze plate, polenta. For main course I had barrimunda fillet. Dessert was ice cream with rhubarb compote. 2 glasses of Pinot Noir for me. The bill probably came to something like AUD100 per person.

Today I walked the 20 minutes from the office to Harry’s Café de Wheels, a 24-hour pie cart at the side of the road next to Finger Wharf. Small menu, eat around the cart. Speciality were pies, British style, served with mash and mushy peas and gravy. The mash and peas were piled on top of the pie and a hole in the middle contained the gravy. yums. AUD4.80 a pop.

20 times price difference. Both really special and delicious. Such is the goodness of food.